CHAPTER L.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 11933, 5 April 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER L.

* I FELT AS IF WE BREATHED OKCB MORE THE SAME AlK.'<Lelia cnn^bt Fanny's band. « Going to kill Sir Francis !' ' Yes, indeed. Oh ! oh >' * Well, he deserves it,' said Lelid, her gentle face becoming hard and dark, in the uprising of bitter memories. ' Bat then/ she added, as -if to herself, ' when be is dead he can neither repent nor atone, and if one does not try to prevent a murder, one is, before 003, gniifcy of Wood !' ' Ob, Mies Lelia ! The man that is going to kid him is h giant, ani so mad a/3 never yon saw, and he has with •him what willbeat ont Sir Francis' brains/ Lelia, the simple and sweet companion of Anna Marvel and Lady Bery], was now in tbe light of a yoang lady pupil at the Biarritz French Finishing ; 6chool f : ! As a Iparlor boarder she had j ber privileges to go ahead withont a ; teacbtr, being one. But she conld not \ go oufe alonp, and a boy in the school Jirery Vaß atteridont on her steps. Leh'a j took a card from her case, wrote a few

words on it, and giving it to the boy, told him to fl/ to the Hotel Gardere, deliver it to its address, and return fcr her to the villa. Quickened, by the reception of a franc, the boy ran off. ' Do not tell yonr lady of this, Fanny; she has had worries and troubles enough. We want her to get quite well and glad again. I see she i 3 looking much stronger and happier, and yesterday she had white flowers at her throat and belt.' * And yesterday Sir Francis Sothron came from England to see her, and stirr?d her up to crying.' ' What !' cried Lelia. • Sir Francis ! Would he dare, do you think he won Id dare to make love to her, to try to marry her, Fanny ?' and a fierce look flamad in Lelia's brown eyes. ' I know she wouldn't listen to him,' i said Fanny. They bad reached the front steps. of the villa. ' She is lound in ihe arbor/ said Fanny. Lelia went round the gravel walk, and saw Beryl sitting in an arbor draped with passion flowers and the airy foliage and fiery bloom of the cypress vine. She was embroidering a rich piece of gold thread, and as she held her Irarae a little from her to note the effect of her work, ahe leaned back her golded bead against the arbor's masses of bltom, and in a sweet voice sang a little fragment : " The birds, the birds of mine own land, I heard- in Brittany ; And- as they sung they seemed to me The very birds I heard with thee. Thou at my side again might be !" 'Dear Lady Beryl, you are happy to-day !' cri?d Lelia. Beryl started and looked abont at the garden, at Lelia, with a soft of wonder. She made room for Lelia at her side. • Yes, I was happy ; I bad been able to forget — to return to a time gone by. Do you know, Lelia, that sometimes a gasfr' of remembered perfume, or the retorn of a strain of music heard long ago, seems a sort of chariot, in which the heart is carried away through space and time to some hour of dear delight ? It was so with me. I heard th© song of s a bird that sometimes wanders over into Sussex, and at the same time I breathed a mingled odor of heather and tall white lilies ; and at once the two carried me back to the one sweet crown* ing hour of my life, when first I knew I was loved and that I loved again ! Oh, Lelia. I had forgotten all that here. I was back at Sussex at my uncle's seat, and 1 beard whispers and saw adoring looks that have held my life fast ever since. 1 Beryl spoke with a certain passionate exaltation that Leiia bad never seen in her. She seemed carried away by ardent memories. She was living in a world evoked by soDg and perfume, and her STeet face flashed, and her violet eyes glowed with that intense love that for her could never die. Lelia recognised the emotion ; she saw that this was love ; but whether an old love or a new one she could not tell. She tremblei with a great fear. She softly took Beryl's hand and kissed ir. ♦ You are so young,' she whispered, ' and so lovely, that lovo will come to you again. Wooers will come, to your feet , once more you will be a bride.' 1 No, Lelia,' said Beryl, gently, falling back into sad qniet. 'My dream is out, my love romance burned to asbe?, mo it ha ago.' ' 4Do not ssy so,' said .Lelia. ' But tell me one thing — if any one loves you and asks your hand, will you let me know ? t If lam ooly jour companion, you can say, * Thia man is my suitor.' 'You are my friend,' t-aid Beryl, patting her cheek j • I would tell yon all ; bat I shall never have such astorv to tell you. The man I loved, ns I think no one evir loved before, because my love grew and grew aft- r I was crnelly parted ir om him, « cku.l ;he died a ; sudden, crnel death. No words can tell j how I loved him. When he lived I could not say to him how dpa** I held him. , Bat now, now that I atn alone in ihe world, I hold his memory to my heart, and 1 say to it over and over a^ain, ' I , love you, I love you, X lote you 1" , ' Ob, Lady Beryl, coald you so love i and love ?' • ' - - i ' I so leved and I lost, in the crnelest way love ever was lost, I think. To-day, i when I heard that song", and breathed i that mingled sweet and Fpicy fragrance,

do yon know I felt as if he were no longer dead, bnt living, living, and near ! I felt as if the same golden sunshine shafc as in as a globe of quivering light, as if the same music filled both oar ears ; a3 if* we both breathed the sweetness of those lilies ; as if I bad only to hold oat my arms into the emptiness that has been so long about me, and they would clasp him, my beloved and my own 1' Lelia had knelt before her friend, and clasping both arms around her waiwt, and laying her tear-wet face against her lap, sobbed : ' Oh, tbia is a far crueller fr.te than mine I I kn*-w no love like this. I think I coui.l never know it. Bnt I believe yon are to me the dearest love of my life. Oh, my friend, my angel, why is it that a soufcinnot be removed back from the grave l>y ihe going down of some living one to death ? Ou, then j I would go to that world that lies beyond this, for in this world I hold so little by anything, and there I would eta) , and send your lover back in u»y place to crown your life with joy J I would do all that for you,! love you so. I would, and yet — I can do nothing.' * You can, dear Lelia,' said Beryl, with a quivering lip. ' Your sympathy comforts me.' The garden gate clanged, and Lelia, rising, resnmed her 'place bepide Bsryl. v The little page appeared. * I forgot, mademoiselle, to give yoa the satchel I carried for you. I wait for you before the gate on the bencb. The gentleman has already gone from Biarritz.' Lelia took the little embroidered velvet bag and the Russian music-roll from the page. * I brought my oew piece to play for you that you may see if I improvp. And here is some new embroidery. I think it is done well. I used to have notaete in such work. I was so careless. Bat now— is there, a little art in this ?' * It is very beautiful/ said Beryl. ' And here,' said Lelia, emptying the velvet bag on the bencb, ♦ is such a charming new pattern, anc| a new kind of working silk.' But with the things on the bench fell out a tarnished velvet case. f Lawrence's picture ?' questioned B,eryJ, pointing to it with a smile. Lelia turned very pale. * Why, how did that get in my bag ! No, Lady Beryl, it is my late husband's picture. I cannot conceive how. it came there.' - '- r 'Ah. May I see it?' said Beryl, holding out her Land. 'Yea.' And Lelia laid the fateful case in her palm. But Beryl had all the moat exquisite sensibilities of a lady. She felt the reluctance which Lelia felt in uttering that lingering ' yes.' ' Gj,' she said, • 1 would rather not ! see it. I nhould not like him. Pat it in the bag, so. Now. L«lia, deitroy it when you go home. You will feel better. We remember our woes enough at best. Come in and play your new masic for me.' ' I wish you would play and sing, Lady Beryl,' said Leha. * Why not begin your natural ways ? The blackness and silence have lasted long enough.' Beryl's hands strayed over the keys. She sang : " I am. to blame ! "Why should I sing ? My lays 'twere better to forget ; Each day to others joy may bring, They -can but give to me regret. Tiove makes my heart so full of woe '1 hat naught can please or soothe me now. lam to blame ! Jam to blame !"